KNOXVILLE - Pen has yet to be put to contract paper. The checks have started coming, though.

New Tennessee football coach Butch Jones' first staff with the Volunteers will make a combined $3.085 million in 2013, according to salary numbers the university released Wednesday in response to a records request by the Times Free Press.

Jones' initial memorandum of understanding called for a minimum salary pool of $3 million for assistants. It's a big increase for Jones, whose staff combined to make $1.696 million at Cincinnati in 2012. Derek Dooley's staffs with the Vols made $2.975 million in 2012, $3.275 million in 2011 and $2.725 million in Dooley's first season at UT.

Tennessee could eventually pay about $7 million to buy out Dooley and his final staff depending on the salaries of the five remaining assistants at their new jobs. Jim Chaney (Arkansas), Sam Pittman (Arkansas) and Sal Sunseri (Florida State) are the lone assistants who have been hired elsewhere officially.

Jay Graham, the lone holdover on Jones' staff, will get a $35,000 increase in his salary.

Strength and conditioning coach Dave Lawson's salary is $175,000. Ron McKeefery, Tennessee's previous strength coach, made $225,000 in 2011 and $240,000 in 2012. He was scheduled to make $255,000 in 2013.

The university has yet to release any official contracts for the new assistant coaches, and the length of the deals, buyout information, incentives and any potential yearly increases in salaries won't be known until those are released.